While I, too, don't give a hoot about the Skripals, the UK cannot tolerate foreign agents running amok and potentially endangering innocent British citizens. The UK government has turned a blind eye for too long.

@bfsiedel, While I agree with much of what you posted, regarding whether or not school is broken depends upon one's expectations of public school. It is possible to learn in public school, but I think warehousing/baby sitting is the primary utility of public school. Of course parents Want their children to get a quality education, but parents Need to work. Things are changing, slowly. Home schooling and cooperative education are growing, and the pace is picking up. Like other government infrastructure, education is crumbling, and the cost of fixing it vs letting it crumble and starting over are starting to even out. Much like everything else.

The part that I find troubling in these conversations, regardless of perspective, is how much they revolve around the extremes. i.e. situations and individuals that encompass less than the 1%. The majority of what happens in schools is good. The issue is not that schools are in despair, but that there is an incredibly negative focus from those outside any sphere of understanding. How many of the people in these conversations have been in a school in the last 10 years? 15 years? It is akin to me offering advice on how to fix global economic issues because I have been to a bank before. Our society is plagued by a media that has no interest in protecting anything, including the last remaining efforts at protecting our children and future. They are all—-all of them—-CNN, NBC, FOX—-not concerned with this society. They instead wish for it to burn so they can film it and blame others for letting it burn. Schools broken?? Bullshit. What is broken is a willingness to open our eyes and form our own opinions.

After all; ALL the POWERS ~ The Banksters, The Pentagon, Wall Street, The Israelis, The Oil Companies and the Quasi Rich ~ are getting EVERYTHING they ever dreamed of from EVERY POTUS for the past 54 yrs. That was the last time they got rid of a potus that gave them trouble.

James, James, James . . . . Your prediction that Trump will be ousted from office appears, to me, to be baseless and unfounded. After all; ALL the POWERS ~ The Banksters, The Pentagon, Wall Street, The Israelis, The Oil Companies and the Quasi Rich ~ are getting EVERYTHING they ever dreamed of from Trump. The POWERS are not gonna allow the removal of their Golden Haired Goose ! !

James, James, James . . . . Your prediction that Trump will be ousted from office appears, to me, to be baseless and unfounded. After all; ALL the POWERS ~ The Banksters, The Pentagon, Wall Street, The Israelis, The Oil Companies and the Quasi Rich ~ are getting EVERYTHING they ever dreamed of from Trump. The POWERS are not gonna allow the removal of their Golden Haired Goose ! !

JHK - with every point in every paragraph of this editorial you show why Trump was elected. Basically, Joe Six-pack was sick and tired of the DC swamp dwellers stealing his paycheck and using the money to crush him. Trump was chosen to be the proverbial bull in the china shop, thrashing the institutions that Joe would like to have thrashed himself. Trump is causing many bureaucrats and politicians to loose their cool, to expose themselves for what they truly are, leaches who see themselves as gods.

So Trump is a buffoon.Fair enough. I believe he was democratically elected in pretty much a landslide. It seems to me that the good citizens of the USA realise that the alternative HRC and the always failing socialist policy agendas that the something for nothings crave, are un-American.

First off: thank you James ~ for explaining our current state of affairs. Secondly, as usual, the Justice System in our country continues to prosecute the FAKE (made up out of thin air Fantasy) Criminals like Russians and Syrians ~ while the REAL Criminals (proof beyond any Shadow of Doubt) like mass murderers Bush, Chaney, Hillary, Obama and a multitude of others ~ walk free. I backed Trump from the time he entered the race. I know ~ he's wrong on so many, many issues ~ but Trump's hammering the same people I'd like to hammer, so there's an Element of Happiness for me the longer he stays in Power.

Mr Kunstler has hit the nail on the head, as he so often does. This Russian red herring serves nicely to distract people from the real issues - the perilous state of US finances and corruption involving the Deep State and what ought to be trustworthy forces of law and order. The American MSM have a lot to answer for.

I am fairly sure that Monetary Metals has explained all this before. Either way it looks to me like silver has broken out of a long term downtrend. I was a seller at the peak, all of it gone, zip except for some numismatics. If you are playing in this market you cannot get wedded to a position. It seems to me that Mr B is in a losing position and is looking for excuses. Now is a good time to buy because it is at a relatively low price. TB should be a buyer here and now. Silver is bulky. I am not a big fan. People really need to examine their reasons for buying, in either the futures or physical market.